Love at First Sight
by Sunny Shadows
Summary: Darlene is the newest student at Forks High School. What happens when a member of the Cullen clan falls for her?
1. Chapter 1

**This is a story that I'm writing for Edwards-Gurl09 for giving me advice on one of my stories.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any Twilight characters.**

* * *

The first day of senior year. Everyone stared at me as I walked up the steps and into the building. I could feel their eyes following me. They probably thought it was pretty odd for someone to transfer to a new school for their last year of high school.

Well, let them stare. I had more important things to worry about, like finding my locker. I had already been to the office, but the little map they had given me wasn't helping at all.

"You've got that upside down."

I looked up to see a pixy-like girl with short black hair. "What?"

"Your map. You're holding it upside down," she told me.

"Oh." I flipped the map right side up, feeling slightly stupid even though it wasn't like the map had any labels so that you would know if you were holding it the wrong way. All it has was squares and rectangles. It still didn't make much sense.

She took the map out of my hands and crumpled it up into a ball. Tossing it cleanly into the recycling can a yard away, she said, "I'll help you find your locker. My name's Alice."

"Thanks. I'm Darlene." I was glad to be rid of that stupid map. "I'm looking for locker 217."

Alice grinned at me. "You're in luck. That's right next to mine."

I couldn't help but grin back as I followed her down the hall.

--- --- ---

By lunch, Alice was basically my new best friend. So far, we had every class together—Trig./Pre-Calc., Physics, and Advanced Writing.

Alice and I were the first ones into the cafeteria, but we were quickly joined by a lot of half-familiar faces. I had seen some of these people in class and they'd even gone out of their way to introduce themselves, but I couldn't remember any of their names.

Luckily, Alice whispered their names as they came to sit at the lunch table. "The freaky tall one is Jacob, the one with the spiky hair is Mike, Mr. Sweater-vest is Eric."

_Jacob, Mike, Eric_, I repeated in my head as each of the boys sat down. Two girls, neither of which I had seen yet, approached the table, too.

Alice didn't whisper their names in my ear. Instead, she waited until they were at the table. "This is my friend Bella and my sister Rosalie."

"Hey," Bella greeted me with a friendly smile. She was a pretty brunette with pale skin and big brown eyes.

Rosalie didn't look at all like Alice. She had long blonde hair and was tall. The only things she shared with Alice was her golden eyes and porcelain skin. Rosalie wasn't as enthusiastic, but gave me a quick hello anyway.

"Hi," I replied, smiling back at Bella and Rosalie.

"It's too bad the boys are gone," Alice said with a little pout. Then, mostly to me, she explained, "My brothers are out hiking with our father. They'll be back this afternoon for baseball practice. Speaking of which, I just had the greatest idea!"

Everyone else at the table had struck up their own conversations, and paid no attention to Alice and me.

"What?" I asked curiously.

"This afternoon is cheerleading practice. We're down a cheerleader since Lauren twisted her ankle…" Alice trailed off, leaving me to fill in the blanks.

"You want me to be a cheerleader?" I asked.

Alice nodded hopefully. "It would be awesome."

Well, I had been a cheerleader at my old school, so it wouldn't be hard. I just couldn't believe that all this was happening on my first day. I already had a great group of friends (even though I still couldn't quite remember all of their names) and I was going to be a cheerleader.

"Okay," I agreed.

"Great. Practice starts at four," Alice told me. "And you'll get to meet my brothers."


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own any Twilight characters.**

* * *

Only five minutes until practice started. I was in the locker room pulling my long blonde hair up into a ponytail.

"Come on," Alice said cheerfully, skipping past me to the door.

Hesitantly, I followed her out the door. Alice was extremely excited for me to meet her brothers.

The grassy area where we were going to practice was right next to the baseball field. Bella and Rosalie were already out there with a few other girls, presumably waiting for me and Alice.

As we walked over, I saw Alice scanning the baseball field. With a little pout, she told me, "They're not here yet."

By _they_, I assumed she meant her brothers. Why was she so eager for me to meet them?

"Are you guys coming or what?" Rosalie called impatiently.

I hurried up a little bit. Rosalie scared me a little.

We started by stretching out. Then, we started working on some routines. Fifteen minutes into practice, we saw a group of guys running laps around the baseball field.

Jacob and some guys I didn't recognize were in the lead. The unfamiliar guys all had the same strikingly pale skin as Alice and Rosalie. They were her brothers. I only caught a very quick glimpse as they sprinted past—two had lighter hair and one had darker hair.

"Darlene!" Rosalie complained as I missed some steps in the routine.

"Sorry." I had been too busy paying attention to the baseball players.

Alice just grinned at me.

--- --- ---

By the time we were done with practice, it was after six. I was hot, sweaty, and tired. Rosalie was a slave driver, and since she was the captain of the team (not because she was the most popular, but because she was the best), she decided when we were done with practice. We'd only had one five-minute break after Bella had begged her.

During the five-minute break, I had stared out at the guys on the baseball field as I guzzled down some water. Alice's brothers were facing away from me playing the field, and Jacob was up to bat. He cracked the ball hard into the outfield, and I thought for sure he was going to have a homerun. But, amazingly, the dark haired one managed to catch the ball. I don't know how he did it because everything happened so fast. It was like I had blinked and missed the whole thing.

Now, the guys were just milling around the field. Their practice was over, too.

Alice tugged on my arm. "Come on."

"Now?" My hair was escaping its ponytail and my face was red from being so hot.

"Yes," Alice insisted. "Now. You look fine."

I didn't believe her, but I let her drag me onto the field anyway. Rosalie and Bella joined us as we walked over.

"Hey guys," Alice called over to her brothers.

They turned around slowly, still laughing from a joke someone had just told.

And then I passed out.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own any Twilight characters.**

* * *

"Hey. You're awake."

I blinked a couple of times. Alice's dark-haired brother was standing over me. This had to be a dream because no one could be that good looking.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," Alice said as I sat up slowly. "Darlene, this is Emmett."

"Hey. Again." Emmett grinned at me and offered me a hand to help me up off the grass. As he helped me up, I thought I was going to faint again for a second, but I sucked in a deep breath to steady myself.

"Hi," I said letting my breath out slowly.

"Emmett, you'd better back off before she passes out again," the bronze-haired boy said with a laugh.

"Very funny," Emmett retorted, but took a step back, much to my displeasure. It was odd how I had just met Emmett, but I already felt very strongly about him.

"And that's Edward—" Alice nodded to the bronze-haired boy, who still looked amused. "—And Jasper." She looked at the blond boy, who looked slightly puzzled, but I didn't know why. Maybe he was wondering why I had passed out.

Well, it was probably better that he didn't know. Because if he knew what I was thinking about Emmett, he would think that I was psycho.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Bella asked me, looking slightly worried.

"Maybe you should come home with us," Emmett suggested. "Our father's a doctor. He can check you out."

"No, that's okay," I said quickly. I really didn't want everyone to make such a fuss over me. Especially when it was as silly as me fainting.

"Actually, I think that's a great idea," Alice piped up, linking arms with me to make sure that I couldn't escape.

--- --- ---

"Oh my god," I said when we stopped in front of the Cullens's house. I was in complete awe. I'd never seen such a beautiful house, not that I got much time to look at it since I was promptly swept inside to see their father, the doctor.

Once we—the entire Cullen family, Bella, and myself—were inside, Rosalie slipped upstairs and returned with a man who looked like he had stepped right out of a movie. Was everyone in this family beautiful?

"My name is Carlisle," the man introduced himself. He stepped towards me. "Rosalie told me that you fainted."

I nodded, my cheeks turning red from embarrassment.

"Why don't you come sit down so I can make sure you're okay?" Carlisle said gesturing to a white couch in the next room. "You didn't hit your head, did you?"

After a few more minutes of Carlisle asking questions and looking at my eyes and checking my pulse, he gave me a clean bill of health.

"Great," Alice said from her perch on the arm of the couch after Carlisle left the room with a 'Nice to meet you, Darlene.'

Everyone besides Alice and Emmett had dispersed, apparently bored with my little check-up. I had to admit, if Carlisle wasn't so good looking I probably wouldn't have put up with it myself.

"Well, it looks like Darlene needs a ride home…" Alice sang out. She had a habit of doing that, singing things instead of saying them. "And you know, I would love to do it, but I have a _ton_ of homework to do…" She looked innocently over at Emmett. "Emmett, do you think you could…?"

Emmett nodded. "If Darlene's okay with it."

Alice looked at me expectantly. She was obviously trying to play matchmaker with me and Emmett. Well, that was fine by me!

"Yeah." I tried to sound casual. I didn't want to look overexcited or something.

Alice smiled again. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow then."

"See you," I said but Alice had already flitted off.

Emmett grinned showing off his dimples. "I guess it's just me and you, kid."


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own any Twilight characters.**

* * *

"So what brought you to Forks?" Emmett was driving me home in his huge, red Jeep.

I shrugged. "My dad got a job offer around here. Nothing exciting."

Emmett nodded, but didn't say anything. This wasn't going exactly as I had planned it in my head. I tried to think of something to say.

"So… You were really fast on the field today." Compliments were always good. "I blinked and almost missed the whole thing."

"Oh, yeah, thanks." He smiled sheepishly. "You were pretty good yourself today. Rosalie's tough to impress."

"You think I impressed her?" Rosalie hadn't said anything to me, good or bad.

"She wouldn't be so green with envy if you were bad," Emmett replied.

I blushed a little bit. Rosalie was jealous of me? Impossible.

He grinned at me conspiratorially. "Just don't tell her I said that."

I smiled back. "Deal." I thought for a second. Now was the perfect opportunity to get to know him. "So how long have you been in Forks?"

"A couple years. We were in Alaska before that."

"Alaska?" I crinkled my nose, picturing polar bears and Eskimos and parkas.

"Yeah. It really wasn't all that bad," Emmett said seeing my expression. "Except, you know, not a whole lot of people to socialize with."

"That would suck," I agreed. "I can't even imagine."

I tried to think of another question to ask, one not too personal but not too superficial either, but Emmett was already pulling into my driveway.

"Thanks for the ride," I said unbuckling my seatbelt. I moved as slowly as I could, lingering in the car in the hopes that he would ask me out or offer to walk me to the door.

"No problem," he said with a shrug, showing no signs of getting out of the car.

Finally, I opened the door. "See you later."

"Yeah."

I shut the car door and walked up to the house. Alone. What was his problem? He was acting like he liked me, but he didn't even offer to walk me to my door. What guy passed up that opportunity?


End file.
